


Going There

by TippenFunkaport



Series: SPOP Canon Compliant Post-War Fics [12]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Best Friends, Bow Needs a Hug, Canon Compliant, Childhood Friends, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/F, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Glimbow Centric, Glimmer Needs a Hug (She-Ra), Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene, Mutual Pining, Pining, Romance, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018) Season 5, Slow Burn, and a nap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:48:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28448703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TippenFunkaport/pseuds/TippenFunkaport
Summary: Season 5 from Glimmer and Bow’s perspective!(aka a whole big collection of missing scene fics that say, let’s take Noelle’s timeline of when Glimmer and Bow got together from Don’t Go as canon and figure out exactly how that might have worked…)-Glimmer is trapped on Prime’s Velvet Glove, millions of miles away from home with nothing for company but an infuriating Catra and her crushing guilt about what happened with the Heart. But her best friends are determined to go get her, assuming Bow can keep Adora, the rebellion, the ship and himself together long enough to get there.It’s life or death, end of the world kind of stuff! So obviously any confusing feelings they might be having about their best friend are better off shoved WAY down deep to deal with… maybe never. Because even if each thinks they might have accidentally fallen in love with the other, now is definitely not the time to go there.
Relationships: Adora & Bow (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Catra & Glimmer (She-Ra)
Series: SPOP Canon Compliant Post-War Fics [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1877971
Comments: 21
Kudos: 51





	1. The Fall of Bright Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bright Moon is under attack and Bow, Adora and the rest of the princess alliance try to escape alive.
> 
> While on Prime's ship, Glimmer and Catra adjust to their new reality.

The silence was the worst part. 

As they left the throne room, the empty hum of Prime’s ship was malicious white noise. It swallowed up the small sound of Glimmer’s boots against the metal floor until all that was left was the frantic shush of her own blood in her ears and the steady pounding of her own panicked heart. 

Where were they taking her? She didn’t dare ask. The feeling of icy fingers still lingered on her chin, a reminder of how close she’d come to… How if Catra hadn’t stopped him, Prime would have just… 

Her steps faltered and the grip on her shoulder tightened, a threat implied. Two guards moved with quiet menace by her side. Safe as a guest now, allegedly, but the way none of them would even look at her left no illusions about how much her life mattered here. She’d hated these too public months of being queen, all eyes on her, but this invisibility was so much worse. 

They guided her down another corridor, this one empty of even the soft footfalls of the other clones buzzing in and out of the throne room. The quiet was suffocating. Unending tension like the moment before something terrible happens.

But what was terrible was already happening and there was no way to escape it anymore than the silence.

* * *

Bright Moon was on fire. 

Bow thought he’d heard someone shout something that might have been his name, but he didn’t stop. Not that he could really make anything out in the riot of screams and blasts. The moonstone loomed far above and looked oddly serene given the absolute chaos happening all around it. 

Prime’s bots whirred all around them, slicing up the sky with screeching lasers. They hit the main building again with one of the larger ships, and this time a portion of the roof collapsed in a cloud of smoke and dust. He forced himself to look away, though even the sound of the old stone as it gave way ached like a physical pain. 

But it was just a building. You can fix buildings. Not like people. He increased his speed, keeping his eyes focused ahead. 

He was not losing anyone else tonight. 

He pushed against the tide of people going in the opposite direction. Castle staff and citizens fleeing for their lives, holding only what they’d been able to grab in the few minutes since Micah had given the order to abandon the castle and surrounding buildings. All around him, people shoved and shouted and children wailing, filling the night with fear and sweat. A few reached out for him, adding their voices to the crush of sound. He was enough of a fixture around here that lots of people recognized him and wanted answers he didn’t have, but he couldn’t stop. 

A tongue of fire licked out of the window of one of the side buildings, and black smoke poured into the sky from everywhere at once. Behind him, it sounded like something large was breaking, but everything was breaking. The entire world was falling apart around them. 

He left the crowd at the main path and started racing up the small hill alongside the main building. There wasn’t time to go around to the stairs. Besides, once he got up to the next level, he should be able to— 

OK, that time he definitely heard someone call his name. A warning. He looked up to see—Oh, no…

* * *

This place was like a maze. Glimmer had been trying to keep track of the twists and tunnels, but everything was the same: whites and grays with flashes of green. The air was stale and sterile, tinged with something sour, and it was making her lightheaded. It didn’t help that there was nothing to drown out the voices in her head. Screaming fear, guilty fury, and the absolute certainty that this was all her fault. 

They’d reached another branch-off, but this one was different from the others. A large painting on the side of the corridor drew her eyes, black and speckled with—wait. She gasped as she realized she was looking at a window that overlooked nothing but endless darkness dotted with white. 

Were those… stars? There were so many of them. They were so small. 

She shivered, frozen in place. Suddenly all she could focus on was the darkness, cold and vast, squeezing everything out until there were just the barest pricks of light and she was falling, slipping forward, the nothing swallowing her whole.

The hand on her shoulder pushed her forward, rough, and she almost toppled forward as she remembered she was on solid ground. The clones pushed her forward again, and she craned her neck back, trying to get another look. Which one of those was her home? Her friends?

All she saw when she looked back was the ghost of her reflection, small and afraid. 

* * *

There was a crack like a pop and one of the large stone fins snapped off the main building. It tipped backward and then fell, hurtling directly towards him. Bow threw his hands over his head instinctively, as if that was really going to do anything against several tons of ancient stone, then felt something crackle above him before all that hit him was a shower of rocks and dust. When the air had cleared, he looked up to see… 

“Scorpia?” He hesitated, his hand halfway to his weapon. His instincts said Horde equals fight but what really was Scorpia now, enemy or prisoner? Were there really even sides now when everything was under attack? “Uh, thanks.”

Scorpia smiled and offered a claw. He took it, letting her tug him up to the next level, adding a new option to the list: ally. Maybe even friend. Everything else was upside down now, why not?

“Oh, yeah, gosh, no problem. I mean, we’re on the same side now! It’s Bow, right? Because I thought that was it but then I was like, man, that seems a little on the nose for the guy with the—” There was a crack and they both looked up as another fin snapped off and pitched downward towards the tiny cluster of rebellion fighters below. Scorpia pointed a claw at it and red lighting arched out, blasting the stone to dust. 

Wow. OK. That was new. And incredibly terrifying. Bow took a large step backwards. But at least she was on their side. 

“Ha! Whoo! Still not used to that. Who knew, right? Not gonna lie, kinda fun though. But, I’ll tell you what, still got a hell of a headache after that whole Heart of Etheria thing. I mean, whew, what a rush of power, you know, but then it went away, and it was like, dang, a nap right about now would be—” 

One of Prime’s fighters zipped overhead, low enough that it reversed the part in Scorpia’s hair. As they watched, it pivoted in midair, charging its front cannon for another blast. Below them, the rebellion scattered as a small army of bots and soldiers came marching across the water, blasters blazing. 

“Tell me about it later. They’ll need help down there.” Bow had already notched a rope arrow and fired towards the edge of the window in the nearest tower. “I have to go find Adora.” 

* * *

“Your majesty, Lord Prime trusts you will enjoy your stay as our honored guest.” The clone’s smile was sarcastic, even as his tone was neutral. 

Glimmer had barely registered that they’d stopped when they’d shoved her across the threshold. She tensed, expectant, still not entirely sure Prime still didn’t intend to kill her after all. 

There was a sound like an electronic exhale behind her and she spun around, in time to see a transparent wall of green light form across the entrance to the room. She ran to the barricade, pounding her fists against it, the electricity buzzing against her exposed skin, but it stayed as solid as ever. 

So this was it. Her cell. They were going to lock her in. Cage her like an animal. 

There was a sound, one it took Glimmer a moment to realize was nails tick-tapping against the metal floor. Great. Embarrassment crept across her cheeks and down her neck that she, of all people, would see her locked up like this. 

Catra. No guards, no cell, no fingers digging into her shoulder. Not even an angry glare or middle finger for her former enemy, just a side-eyed glance and the side of her mouth twitching into a smug smirk. 

Barely two hours ago she’d been a broken thing in the rubble of the Fright Zone, practically begging Glimmer to kill her. Now she was sauntering down the hallway, her tail swooshing like she owned the place, and Glimmer wished she’d honored that request. When they’d been in front of Prime before, she’d thought they’d had a moment... but it was clear now Catra had only saved her life for selfish reasons, like everything she did. 

Gods, she hated her now more than ever! But, still, a leaden feeling settled in her gut as she watched the other girl disappear around the corner without a glance back. 

* * *

“Adora!” Bow tore through the Bright Moon hallways, his heart pounding. Everything shook as something exploded outside. The floor seemed to tremble under his feet and he increased the pace. With the damage, he didn’t know how much time they had until the whole thing went down. 

Where was she? What if he was too late? He’d been the one who insisted she go rest while he went to fight, if anything happened to her—

“Bow! Watch out!” Something slammed hard into his middle and he flew backwards just as the section of hallway in front of him exploded in light and stone. The needle-like nose of a Horde ship stabbed through the window, crashing into the wall on the other side, a shard of ice sticking out of the cockpit that looked like Frosta’s handiwork. Adora grabbed his hand, tugging him to his feet. “Move move move!”

They sprinted down the hallway, the floor wobbling dangerously underneath them. 

“Adora...”

“I know! Just keep moving!” Behind them was a terrible creaking and crunching sound that meant nothing good, the whole tower groaning under the weight of the ship. They rounded a corner and where there were supposed to be stairs there was only a gaping hole, the edges smoking from blaster fire. They were trapped. 

Adora grabbed at her wrist for the sword and swore as she remembered it was gone. Bow reached for a rope arrow, but he was out. Shoot. What could they use instead? Maybe a net or—

“Did someone say Swift Wind?” 

No one had said Swift Wind but Bow had had never been so glad to see that flash of rainbow wings in his entire life so he let it slide. Adora had already leapt into the open air, trusting Swift Wind to catch her. Bow jumped after, Adora catching his hands and pulling him up behind her. In half a second, they were climbing, flying skyward so fast the bottom of Bow’s stomach pitched downward like they’d left it behind. 

“Better hold on. Kinda crowded in the sky today!” Swift Wind banked left, sharp, just in time to avoid the searing pulse of energy that blasted right where they’d just been. There was one of Prime’s fighters on their tail, way too close. Bow notched an arrow, but it was going to be impossible to get a shot on it from this position. 

“Go low.” Adora shouted and Swift Wind complied, heading for the beach. The entire thing was overrun with Prime’s soldiers, swarming toward the castle, and Bow could only hope Scorpia had gotten the other rebellion fighters out of there in time. There was a low rumble below them and the beach almost looked like it was moving. Prime’s forces must be doing something to it. He glanced behind them, trying to find his shot, and noticed the second ship. 

“Uh, we’ve got company!” he called.

Adora swore again and Swift Wind dove automatically, but the ships followed, boxing them in. There was nowhere to go. Swift Wind’s hooves were just above Prime’s forces on the beach, and a few had already started taking shots at them. 

“I can take the ships out if you can get me a shot!” Bow called, a lot more confident than he felt. In theory his shock arrows could take out a Horde bot that size, Prime’s ships shouldn’t be that different, should they? Gosh, he really hoped so. 

“I can do that. But… hold on. Like, really tightly!” Swift Wind shouted. Bow only had one free arm, but he linked it around Adora’s waist and used every ounce of his leg muscles to stay on as Swift Wind did a loop-de-loop then twisted so they were going in the opposite direction. They were facing the ships now, and Swift Wind picked up speed. 

Bow readied his arrows, trying to shake the dizzy feeling of being upside down. “OK, here goes—” 

Without warning, the beach underneath them groaned and then disappeared, the ground itself swallowing soldiers and bots. The rumbling Bow had heard before was now a massive roar. Before he could even understand what was happening, a familiar purple worm-like monster rose from the ground. In a moment, the two ships were gone, the Bright Moon Guardian dragging them back down with it into the massive canyon that now stretched along the front of the castle. 

“Finally! About time you did some guardian-ing!” Adora yelled as the Bright Moon Guardian slithered back into what was left of the underground caverns. “We’re doing all the work out here!”

“She means, thank you!” Bow called after the giant crystal monster. He lowered his bow and let out a relieved breath that was almost a laugh. Wait until he told Glimmer about… He swallowed, all the tension immediately returning to his shoulders. 

“Swifty, what’s the situation at the woods?” Adora was already back in soldier mode as Swift Wind took them back up.

“Now that everybody’s out, Micah wants us all the shelter there. He thinks the wood’s magic might—” Swift Wind’s head whipped around as there was a tremendous sound behind them, like a massive sigh, and Bow turned in time to watch the tower they were just in collapse in on itself, the whole top section crumbling down into the base like a badly made cake. 

It was like a lead weight in his middle. He knew he should be like Adora, focused straight ahead of her, thinking ahead to the next thing so he didn’t go completely out of his mind, but he couldn’t stop himself from looking back. And it hurt. This was his home, a place he loved more than anywhere else, filled with memories stretching back across more than half his life.

And it was gone. 

It had been different on the ground. Up here, you could see everything, all the beauty and splendor reduced to smoke and rubble. Destroyed. Horde ships still buzzed around it, like flies over a corpse. As he watched, a stray blast sliced off the winged steeple and it fell, smashing to bits in the front courtyard. 

It was just a place. Only a building. He repeated it like a mantra, but it didn’t work anymore and a sob bubbled up before he could stop it. Because it wasn’t just about the place. Bright Moon was completely tied up in his mind with one person more than any other, the one that made it home for him.

And she was gone too. 

* * *

Glimmer lay on the bed in her cell, her eyes squeezed as tightly shut as she could make them. She wanted to sob, to wallow in self-pity and cry herself out, but she’d decided that she didn’t deserve that. Not after what she’d done. She breathed, in and out, until the pricking feeling at the corner of her eyes lessened.

Besides. Prime may have her. He may have her planet and her friends and her pride. But he would not see her break. 

That was one thing he would never have. 

Once she had control again, she opened her eyes, stared up at the white ceiling and tried to think about nothing at all. Not about what Prime was going to do to Etheria and how it was all her fault. Definitely not about how she was probably going to die out here, entirely alone, and how it would serve her right. Certainly not about how the last time she’d talked to her friends she’d yelled at them, same as she’d done with her mother. Absolutely not about how Bow had still come after her, even after everything she’d done, and she really didn’t deserve a friend like that. 

His face as she'd disappeared was burned into her memory. The very last thing she’d seen on Etheria before Prime had taken her away. It was painful to think about, but she kept picking at the wound, just to see him again. A reminder that no matter what she’d done, at least someone still loved her. 

Loved her, but not like… 

Oh, gods, not this again. She slammed the heels of her hands into her eyes before her tear ducts could betray her. Like she needed this on top of everything else? These feelings were supposed to all be dealt with, boxed up and buried down nice and deep.

Absolutely not. Now is NOT the time for this nonsense. She pushed it all back down. Back in the box and then it’s going alll the way back there. For a second, it all tried to bubble back up again, but she shoved it back down. 

“No. This is hard enough. We’re not doing this to ourselves, OK?” She said out loud, even though she was alone. “Not now. Maybe not ever. Please.”

She exhaled, ragged, and closed her eyes again. “Let’s just… not go there.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a long self-indulgent intro of why I decided to write this fic, feel free to skip!
> 
> I have been jokingly referring to this as my Glimbow Opus because I’ve already been writing it on and off for MONTHS before I even started posting it here. I finished watching Season 5 of She-Ra in May 2020 and was completely boggled about how we were supposed to read the timeline of that season not to mention when Bow forgave Glimmer and when they got together. I started writing a whole bunch of missing scene fics, trying to make sense of it.
> 
> Then Noelle’s secret fanfic, Don’t Go, was exposed at the start of June where there are several indications that Glimmer and Bow might have been together in some form and had maybe even kissed well before they confessed their feelings in The Heart: Part 1. And at first I was like, whaaaa? But then, the more I thought about it, the more that timeline made sense to me. So I chopped up what I’d written already and starting rewriting it into this fic you’re about to start reading. It’s taken me so long to post because I kept adding scenes as new dynamics and missing moments occurred to me.
> 
> This is a giant mash-up of all my headcanons of everything that happened in Season 5 that didn’t make it on the screen and also me trying to make sense of Glimmer and Bow’s relationship timeline through the glimpses we get in Don’t Go. It's the slowest burn but, in my defense, that's what canon gave me... so.
> 
> FYI, the events of this fic happen almost immediately after the Season 4 finale and also right after my other missing scene fic, Shells - <https://archiveofourown.org/works/25682860>


	2. She Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After meeting with Light Hope, Glimmer presents her proposition to Double Trouble. But the interview does not go how she expects it to.

Glimmer’s footsteps echoed through the empty hallways. Bright Moon felt gutted, abandoned. Rationally, she knew that was because it was the middle of the night and everyone was sleeping. At least everyone who hadn’t… she clenched her hands at her side. 

She wasn’t going to think about them. Not the fight. Not the wrenching in her gut as she’d watched the ship rise up and away and realized they’d really done it. They’d abandoned her after they’d promised, they’d SWORE she wouldn’t have to do this alone that they’d— 

She hesitated at the door, her hand shaking. She steadied her breathing, grateful she’d dismissed the guards and no one else was seeing what a mess she was right now. It was harder here. At the Crystal Castle, there had been things to hit, a plan. Hope and the righteous need to show them that they were wrong for not trusting her, for thinking they knew better about magic when she was the one who’d been born with it. 

And now she alone knew what to do. How to finally FINALLY defeat the Horde. All those years of watching the Horde destroy her family, her world. She’d surrendered her entire life to this war and now she could end it for everyone. Free the magic, bring everyone peace. 

Never again would a little girl cry because her parent was lost in battle. No more desperate kids fighting for their homes because the previous generation had given up and left them with the mess. A beautiful future where they could all just BE instead of fighting for their lives all the time. It was finally within reach. 

She would save them. Save everyone. And then her friends would see that they were wrong and they’d… they could all…

She pushed open the door before she could lose her nerve. She stepped into the spare— to the prison. Her head held high. A Queen. The one who was going to save Etheria. 

"Double Trouble, I have a proposition for—" She stopped, frozen halfway across the room, her eyes fixed on the figure standing before her. 

"Heeey, Glimmer!" 

"Bow?" Her voice sounded so small in the big room. 

He'd come back? She exhaled, tension rolling off her. Of course, he'd come back! This was Bow, her best friend, the only friend that mattered. She should have known Adora wouldn't have really been able to take him away, not with everything there was between them. She was so relieved a small sob burst out of her and she started to move towards him, ready to collapse into his arms when he laughed and the sound was all wrong. 

“Ooo. Well, there’s an interesting reaction!” It was Bow's voice but there was no mistaking the inflection. Double Trouble twisted Bow's mouth up into an arrogant smirk and Glimmer stepped backward involuntarily even though the shapeshifter was still behind the magic barrier.

Of course. What an idiot she was. She balled her fists, digging her nails into her palms. Bow hadn't come back. He really had left her, chosen Adora and Entrapta and even centuries dead Mara, over her. She slammed the heels of her hands into her eyes, scrubbing away traitorous tears. 

Usually, it didn’t bother her when Double Trouble was Bow. They’d been almost everyone, Aunt Casta, Adora, General Juliet, even Catra, whoever they thought would get a rise out of her. She was grateful they only had murals of her parents to go on or they’d probably turn into her mother too. She wasn’t sure she could handle her mother sneering at her from the other side of the energy field after everything. 

But their version of Bow was too smug, too— even knowing it was fake, she flushed at the memory of THAT interview— flirty. Missing that softness when the real Bow looked at her like Double Trouble was too edgy to even understand someone like Bow. No matter what they said as him, no matter how cruel, it was easy enough to remember that it wasn’t real. The real Bow would never ever turn on her.

At least, she’d thought he wouldn’t. 

"Take. Off. His. Face." She was shaking but she tried to keep her voice even. “I have a deal for you.” 

“So touchy!” They crossed their arms across Bow’s chest, a pose that looked enough like something the real thing would do that it hurt to look at. “Oh, honey! Don’t tell me you managed to drive Mr. Sunshine away too! I thought even _you_ couldn’t mess that up. TRAGIC! I was rooting for you two, I truly was.” 

Heat crept into her cheeks as they laughed. She hated that they KNEW. That she was so pathetically obvious that even they had figured it out. The one thing she’d swore no one would EVER know. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She set her jaw and straightened her shoulders. “No more games. You’re working for me now. Whatever the Horde is paying you, I’ll double it.” 

They’d turned back into themselves then. Taken the deal and betrayed Catra for rebellion gold. Paved the way for Glimmer to make the greatest mistake of her life. 

But that’s not what happened this time. 

“Are you sure you don’t want me to lie to you, your majesty?” Somehow the barrier was gone and Bow— no it wasn’t Bow, she had to keep reminding herself— moved towards her. He lifted his hand and brushed her cheek gently with his fingers. His touch was warm, calloused, and familiar. “Since there is no chance now of the real thing.”

She reached up to touch his face, unable to stop herself. For so long she’d wanted— She forced herself to pull away. “No. No, this isn’t real.”

“No,” Bow said almost sadly and she gasped because for once the shapeshifter had gotten that warmth in his eyes exactly right. Then his face shifted and it was cold and angry, that same way he’d looked at her that last time… maybe the last time she’d ever see him. “It isn’t real. Everything is broken now. And it’s all your fault.” 

Something happened then. It felt like the Heart of Etheria all over again, that terrible violation of having her power ripped out of her and being helpless to stop it. Everything glowed too bright, too hot, too much. Her knees dipped underneath her.

Bow reached out to steady her. She grabbed his arm but it disintegrated under her fingers. Sparks traveled up his arm from where she’d touched him. It was her own magic but she couldn’t control it, couldn’t stop it. She could only watch as he burned away like paper, the whole time looking at her with that face, that cold face full of so much fury and all of it directed at her. And then he was gone, bits of him floating of into the air and disappearing. 

She reached helplessly into the spot where he'd just been as the magic kept spreading. It ate its way across the floor and up the walls, its hunger insatiable. When it had nearly reached her, she burst out of the room and tore down the hallways calling for her friends, her guards, anyone, going from room to room, the fire at her heels, but there was no one to help her. She’d driven them all away. 

She dove out of the building as the castle dissolved into pink-tinged ashes all around her. But there was nothing solid out here either and she fell, screaming, into open space. Stars, vast and dark, crushed at her from all sides. She gasped, desperately, but there was no air. The darkness had filled her and pushed everything else out. She had done this to herself.

And now she would fall forever, alone, with no one to catch her. 

She woke, gasping. The piercing white light of the room was a stark contrast to the endless nothing. She blinked, willing her eyes to adjust. 

Where— Dread settled in the pit of her stomach as she remembered. She forced herself upright, cursing herself for falling asleep. For getting herself worked up about a dream when she was already living a nightmare. 

How long had she been asleep? For that matter, how long had it been since she’d left Etheria? She had no idea. Time was meaningless here. 

She made her way to the force field at the edge of her cell, translucent now. For the first time since she’d been here that were no clones outside her door. She may not get another chance. 

“Come on. Please work.” She concentrated, trying to summon enough magic to teleport past the barrier but she could barely summon a spark. She tried banging on the electronic wall with her fists but it didn’t do any more good than it had the last hundred times she’d tried. “Hey! Is anyone there?”

She heard something. A ghost of a sound. “Someone, answer me!” 

Nothing. Glimmer was breathing heavily, her heart racing. Something was out there, watching her. Or was there? There was another soft sound but she wasn’t sure anymore if it was real or a product of the nightmare and her own terrified brain. 

“Hello?” She waited, holding her breath but there was nothing. No sound but the quiet hum of the ship and her own blood rushing in her ears. It must have been her imagination. There was no one there. 

She was completely alone. 


	3. Good Soldiers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rebellion has finally found a place to hide from Prime's forces in the woods and Adora and Bow try to get some rest.

Ow. That had to be like the 10th time he'd nicked himself in just the last five minutes alone. Bow stuck his finger in his mouth, hoping the metallic taste of blood would somehow wake him up. He was too tired to be doing this. He kept screwing it up but there was no telling what tomorrow would bring and the last thing he wanted was to be caught without arrows if Prime’s forces found them. 

When they found them. 

He went back to trying to jam the tiny bronze point onto the shaft. There hadn’t been time to restock in the chaos of leaving Bright Moon and the arrowheads that Elberonian archer had lent him were a little smaller than what he usually used. But he was going to have to make due. Without arrows he was no good to anybody, and the last thing he wanted to be right now was useless. 

"Hey." Adora crawled into the tent and he shifted himself back up against the cloth wall to give her room to get herself maneuvered. It was going to be pretty crammed with the two of them in here. Micah had tried to insist they each take their own tents or at least shared one of the large ones but they had so many people with them, it seemed ridiculous for the two of them to take a bigger tent when there were whole families who could make better use of them.

Adora slumped down onto her bedroll, then seemed to register what he was doing. “Why are you still up? I told you to get some rest an hour ago!”

"We don't know what we're facing tomorrow. I just want to be ready." He didn't bother elaborating. Adora had been there for that desperate run through the woods, Prime's forces raining fire down from above. The first place they'd tried to stop was overrun with bots before they'd even broken camp. They wouldn't have made it out alive if Mermista and Sea Hawk hadn't shown up when they did and helped even the odds. 

Even then, it was running and hiding and saving and almost dying over and over until they finally found this place. Safe enough, it seemed. But for how long? 

"Come on, Bow. At least I got some sleep back home before... everything." Adora grabbed a handful of shafts and starting assembling arrows. She was kind of terrible at it and he had to fix most of the ones she did when she wasn’t looking, but he appreciated that she always at least tried to help. It reminded him of how it used to be, before everything, when he and Glimmer would—no. He wasn’t doing that to himself right now. He jabbed another finished arrow into the quiver hard enough he heard the point thunk into the leather bottom. 

“When was the last time you rested? The night before we left for Beast Island?” Adora wasn’t having much more luck with the smaller arrowheads than he was. “Have you even eaten?”

"I'm fine." He probably eaten at some point. He was too tired to be hungry, anyway.

"You're the worst liar." She bumped him with her shoulder and then just kind of left it there, leaning into him. They both smelled pretty terrible, but considering they'd been running and fighting for their lives for about fifty hours straight, that wasn't surprising. “I talked to Entrapta about the ship. She says we can do it. We can go get her.”

"Yeah." After about a million upgrades and hours of work repairing ancient equipment. And even then it’s not like they even know where she was or if she was even—the wood of the shaft bent under his fingers and nearly snapped. He forced himself to breathe and loosen his grip. He couldn’t afford to break what little materials he had because he couldn’t keep it together. 

He’d talked to Entrapta too. She’d seemed pretty confident they could do it. He exhaled, his breath making the fletching tremble. Well, she was smarter than he was by a long shot. Maybe he should find that comforting. 

“Do you think Glimmer—”

“Damn it!” He’d nicked himself again. 

"OK, you're too tired to do this now. I'm calling it. You've got enough arrows. We can do this tomorrow or something. Pack it up. We're going to sleep."

"Not yet. What if..." Adora glared at him and he could see the dark circles under her eyes even in the dark. She wouldn't go to bed unless he did. And he really was too tired to do any more. "Fine."

He watched vacantly as Adora wrapped up the rest of his materials and tucked them into his quiver, dimly aware that he should do that but too exhausted to protest. Not that she didn't know how to do it. She'd helped him clean up almost as many times as—

He rubbed his face. Please. Not now. It was… too much. 

He wedged his bow and quiver alongside the edge of his sleeping roll so he'd be able to grab them immediately if there was an attack. It didn't leave him a lot of room for actually sleeping. He settled back onto the bedroll. It wasn't exactly comfortable, laying there with all his armor on and his bow jabbing into his back, but he’d rather be ready. 

He tried to stretch out his legs, but his boot hit the corner tent stake. He turned onto his side, tucking his legs up a little. Adora had crammed herself as far to the side as she could to give him more room, but this tent wasn't made for two people and all their gear. Adora was close enough that he could see her eyes open in the dark, staring at the purple canvas above them. She had her battle staff in her hand like she planned to sleep that way. Outside, he could hear quiet voices, tense conversation and what sounded like the watch changing over. 

"Worst sleepover ever," Adora said, and even tired as he was, he let out a small laugh. It was good to see her smile, even if it was a tired one. "Micah said Casta is sending sorcerers to shield the camp. Maybe that will help. Maybe we can hide here for a while, let everyone catch their breath." 

"Maybe." He wasn't really in the mood for conversation but he knew it helped Adora to make plans out loud. It let her feel in control of the situation, even when it was clearly out of hand like this. He shifted, trying to find a position where his spaulder wasn't completely digging into his shoulder, and accidentally kicked Adora. "Sorry."

"It's fine." She shifted a little closer to the side to give him more space, but there wasn't that much room to go. Guess they really were growing up. It hadn't been that long ago that they'd been kids using one of these tents to camp in the courtyard. Back then the two of them fit just fine, though he was a lot wider now and Adora was much taller than—

He tried to focus on the sliver of moonlight coming in from the tent flaps, but the problem was that the moon, the stars, the whole vastness of space made him think of her too. Everything was a minefield where he could barely touch on even the simplest things and BOOM, a burst of complicated emotions. He hadn’t realized how much his entire life had revolved around her until she was gone, leaving a vacuum so strong it hurt. 

“Promise me you won’t do that thing you do.” Adora turned to look at him. He’d almost forgotten she was there. “Where you completely ignore all your needs because you’re too busy taking care of everyone else?” 

"I don't do that. YOU do that."

"That's because I have to! Queen Angella told me I had to take care of you two! Her last words, Bow!" Her voice faltered on the last word. She sniffed and rubbed at her eyes. Should he be crying too? He just didn’t have the energy. 

"Us two? I thought you said she told you to take care of Glimmer?" He asked it softly into the silence. That's what she'd been telling them for the last year anyway. With her dying breath, Queen Angella told Adora she had to take care of Glimmer. Adora. Like he hadn't already been doing that for half his life? Comforting to know Glimmer's mom had no faith in him. Though apparently she was right, because where was Glimmer now? 

He rubbed his eyes. Maybe he wasn’t too tired to cry after all. 

"She said... take care of each other." Adora's eyes were glistening, and she was staring past the ceiling of the tent, probably all the way back to that moment in the portal when she'd seen the queen for the last time. 

"Well, that's totally different!”

“It’s not! It’s—” Adora shook her head, closing her eyes. "I just… I have to rescue Glimmer. I have to fix this."

"We're both…" He exhaled and then let it go. He was too drained to talk Adora out of her savior complex right now. "You're not doing it alone." 

She made a vague non-committal noise and then it was quiet for long enough that he almost fell asleep, but then Adora spoke again, in a very tiny voice. "Bow?"

"Yeah?" He could feel sleep dragging him down, like those dark tendrils at Beast Island that felt like another lifetime ago. 

"What happened at Bright Moon today... We've never faced anything like this, you know? This is BAD." She exhaled and grabbed at her head. "And in case we'd don't, like, make it... I just wanted you to know--"

"We're going to make it," he said quickly because it was hard enough to not let the hopelessness consume him when it was only in his head, it would be impossible if she was going to put it out in the open like that. 

"Just… let me say this, OK?" She turned onto her side and looked at him as serious as he'd ever seen her. "You know that girl who works in the gardens? The one with the braids?"

There were a lot of girls who worked at the castle, and many of them had braids. He had no idea which one she meant specifically, but he nodded because he had a feeling it didn't really matter. 

"Before she.. she couldn't find her sisters. And I was helping her, and… and we found them, eventually. They'd been in the south wing when the attack happened because—anyway, it's not important." Adora took a deep breath and Bow realized she was really crying now, tears streaming down her face so fast she wasn’t even bothering to wipe them away. "But there was a while there, when it seemed like maybe they hadn't made it the girl was… anyway, I was just really glad we found them. It was like… they lost their house and all, but that didn’t matter because they were home to her, you know?" 

Adora stopped a moment, closing her eyes like she was trying to get herself under control. They were so close to together already, Bow wasn't sure if it would be weird to reach out of her or not, so he just put his hand in the small space between them so it was there if she wanted it. 

“Anyway, I’ve never had… I mean, obviously there was Shadow Weaver, but that's like…” She made a frustrated sound. “But you and Glimmer… you’re… I mean I love all our friends, of course I do, but there’s no one else… except maybe Catra but that’s, whoo, SO different…” 

She let the sentence hang there, but he knew she was thinking about her former friend. And his feelings towards Catra were not particularly warm considering how many times she'd tried to kill all of them on top of the complete disaster of the last year. Nobody denied that Angella being gone and all that extra pressure on Glimmer directly resulted from Catra's actions with the portal. But he'd have to be an idiot to not know that, despite everything, the girl was still incredibly important to Adora.

"Anyway, just… I love you. Both of you. You’re my… I don’t know. I mean, we’re not related or anything and you’ve both already got like actual dads and aunts and siblings and stuff but…" 

"I know what you mean. And we love you too. Both of us." He wasn’t sure if it was weird that he was answering for Glimmer, especially after the contentious year the two of them had, but he knew it was true. And, heck, these last few years he was closer to Adora than he was any of his actual sisters. But he didn’t like the way she was making this sound like goodbye. “We’re all in this together, Adora. You’re not getting rid of us that easy.”

She laughed. “Well… good. So… don’t you dare die on me!”

“I’ll try not to.” He gave her a grin. She grabbed his hand and gave it two tight squeezes before shifting onto her side. In a moment, she was sleeping, her back rising and falling in a steady rhythm. He closed his eyes too and tried to sleep over the buzz of his own thoughts.

Adora felt like family. That part was right. But there was something about the way she’d talked about them, like he and Glimmer were her brother and sister… that didn’t sit right. And maybe it was silly, he’d known her since he was a kid after all, but even now when he was as annoyed at her as he’d ever been with any of his siblings, thinking of Glimmer as his sister felt entirely wrong. Like trying to cram the wrong arrowhead on where it didn’t fit. 

And that was weird, wasn’t it?

He’d almost worked it out when exhaustion finally caught up with him and dragged him under into restless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BROTP right there, baby!

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are always hugely appreciated no matter how long after posting it is!
> 
> Visit my Tumblr for asks, fic updates and misc thoughts. <https://tippenfunkaport.tumblr.com/>


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